Analysis: over-flowing churches will not be part of an Irish Christmas this year, but virtual forms of religion have proved hugely popular
By Gladys Ganiel, Queen's University Belfast
The evening before the first Sunday in Advent, Fr James O’Reilly stood in an empty St Joseph’s Church in Antrim recording a video message for the parish Facebook page. O’Reilly lamented the two-week closure of church buildings for worship, which had taken effect the previous day under new lockdown restrictions. He reminded viewers: "please do tune in and join us".
The parish of Antrim is one of many churches that had no online services before the Covid-19 pandemic. It now has a vibrant parish community based around Facebook, with daily mass livestreamed and other meetings, like a recent five-week Facebook Live study of John’s Apocalypse. During events, people use Facebook’s comment facility to greet each other, pray and thank the priests.
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From RTÉ Radio One's News At One, Cian McCormack speaks to priests about isolation felt by them during Covid-19
The pandemic means that the over-flowing churches that many people associate with Christmas Day will not be part of Ireland’s holiday celebrations this year. But during lockdown, virtual forms of religion like those practised in Antrim have proved startlingly popular and are set to form the basis of many people’s Christmas celebrations.
A virtual Advent
During lockdown, most of Ireland's churches have gone virtual: 87% now provide online services, compared to 56% before the pandemic. Research commissioned by the Iona Institute has found that the percentage of people in the Republic tuning in to religious services, including online and television, has held steady since the start of the pandemic, at 27% in April and 26% in November. In Northern Ireland, it's 39%.
There are other signs that virtual forms of church are flourishing. In March, RTÉ began broadcasting daily mass, provided by the webstreaming company Church Services TV. Daily viewing figures have remained at 30,000 to 40,000, comparable to a pre-pandemic Sunday mass on RTÉ One. Church Services TV also supply an additional mass or service from a local faith community on Sunday afternoons.
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From RTÉ Radio 1's Sunday With Miriam, Knock parish priest Fr Richard Gibbons on reopening the doors of his church to the public
On the First Sunday in Advent, when churches were closed for worship, 93,800 tuned in for mass on RTÉ, nearly 20% of the available audience share. After church buildings reopened, 59,000 tuned in for mass and 43,000 for a Church of Ireland service on the Second and Third Sundays of Advent, respectively. A mass on the third Sunday of November in remembrance of those who have died from Covid-19 attracted Knock Basilica's largest-ever online audience: 110,500 across several platforms. Between 4,000 and 5,000 are accessing Knock's twice-weekly Ignatian Advent reflections.
Elsewhere, the June novena at Belfast's Clonard Monastery attracted more than 50,000 viewers per day. Clonard is offering online masses only on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, because it cannot guarantee the health and safety of the crowds expected to attend. Some priests have urged the bishops to cancel in-person Christmas masses; while the Government has advised against indoor carol singing.
People in the pews
But some people are returning to the pews during Advent. The re-opening of churches during the summer was stressful and complex, but also revealed a deep reservoir of good will as volunteers stepped forward to ensure that sanitation and social distancing protocols were followed. Some churches hold extra services or operate online booking systems. Such measures will continue over Christmas, with many churches offering a mixture of online and in-person services.
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From RTÉ Radio 1's Morning Ireland, Augustian priest Fr Iggy O'Donovan on running extra masses for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day to cope with demand while adhering to public health guidelines.
A dual online/in-person approach is necessary because some people remain fearful about returning to church: In August, the Iona Institute found that 45% of pre-pandemic massgoers had not returned to mass because of 'fear of Covid-19', with 22% saying it was due to limits on numbers in church buildings. According to another Iona Institute poll in November, 36% of Irish people plan to attend Christmas mass in-person this year, including 47% of the over 55s and 22% of 18-24-year-olds.
Driving in for Christmas
Other churches are offering drive-in options, including evening carol services and Sunday morning worship. During the summer, drive-in services were popular among Protestants in rural areas and provincial towns in Northern Ireland. They are usually conducted on the flatbed of a lorry, which is positioned in a church carpark, farmers market, or other large, open site. The Methodist Church's service at Castle Archdale caravan park, Co Fermanagh, was so in-demand that cars queued on Saturday evenings to reserve spaces for Sunday morning.
At some drive-in services, people stay inside their cars, waving at one another from behind windscreens. In others, people sit outside their cars, as envisioned in the promotional materials for a carol service at Green Pastures Church in Ballymena: ‘Bring your own camping chair and hot chocolate!’ Other outdoor events have continued with participants at a safe distance, like the Dublin Council of Churches' annual lantern-lit prayer walk between the churches of their various denominations.
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Dublin Council of Churches Walk of Light 2020
Like and share the celebrations
Although mass attendance and other indicators of devotion have declined dramatically in Ireland in recent years, religious practice usually peaks at Christmastime and prayer and interest in spirituality have increased during the pandemic.
Yet churches have prepared for Christmas with limited resources: church plate collections have been non-existent, and annual fundraisers and other sources of income have been lost. In some dioceses, priests' wages have been cut.
But despite the challenges, Ireland's churches have adapted creatively, giving people a variety of online and in-person opportunities to 'like and share’ their Christmas celebrations.
Dr Gladys Ganiel is a Research Fellow in the Senator George J Mitchell Institute for Global Peace, Security and Justice at Queen's University Belfast
The views expressed here are those of the author and do not represent or reflect the views of RTÉ
